We have been scoping out how we can tackle the mammoth task of analytics at Pearson, if i'm honest we do enough to get by in terms of understanding our high level engagement and measuring globally significant campaigns and activity. We use a variety of tools, Google analytics, community manager reports and big data into business objects (shudder) but we could do so much more and our community wants to know more too. Up until now a big set back for us has been resources but with light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of an additional head we want to make sure we find the right person.

Dina Vekaria-Patel and I have been talking to community managers in the UK about how they're tackling big data and in a bid to understand it more widely I wanted to open it up across the Jive community?

Is analytics part of your core role?

If it is how much time do you dedicate to it?

Do you get support from teams outside of your team to help crunch the numbers?

Kim EnglandDina Vekaria-Patel this is something we would actually like to get better at for 2015 too. For the first time since launching last year I've actually put a strategy in place for our instance for 2015 so that we've got strategic priorities, supporting activities with desired outcomes and measurement mapped against each.

It was a very valuable exercise to do and helped me see what we can and can't measure using the Community Reports and Google Analytics. I'm by no means a data expert so actually I've called in some help from our COO and other parts of our business to get data and architecture experts involved.

I would be very interested in seeing the responses you get and perhaps we can tackle some challenges together?

I'm about to dash into an all day workshop but will answer your questions for you later.

I think I see a UK User meeting topic in the making, I'm more than happy to host this as it is really important to us to get this right for 2015. I'd love to hear about how you've built your stategy. We've been very good at building out our engagement strategy, gamification etc. etc. but measuring this has in some cases been a bit of a finger in the air exercise.

As Pearson puts efficacy at the heart of everything we do, we need to make sure that we are able to demonstrate how efficacious Neo is.

The really important thing for all of us to be doing is to make sure we ask the questions (and the right ones) BEFORE we start looking at the data. Way too easy to look at data and then write a question to fit the answer you "see."

While I understand the Shudder regarding big data into business objects, I'd like to know how you go about it. Also how people feel about using Google Analytics, I remember discussing the issue nearly two years ago and there was still a lot of 'fear' about letting Google in.

I am a Community Manager and have been using Google Analytics to measure community engagement for almost a year now. We primarily look at pageviews, but also factor in other metrics such as bounce rate, # of days since last visit, average time on page, etc. When we first started using GA, we used the reporting function with Google Analytics itself, but we are now using the GA add on to Google Sheets to create custom reports and generate our own dashboards using the native charts in Google. We then can surface the dashboard widgets in our own metrics groups using the HTML widget (see examples below).

Since a primary goal is to increase and sustain user engagement on our site, the GA provides a much deeper insight into the data then the Community Manager Reports. In particular, tracking page views for all groups/spaces over time allows us to see when user engagement within individual groups/spaces begins to taper off. In addition, we send out direct message campaigns with embedded GA links which allow us to track response rates in one place. This helps us understand which tools/info/tips get the most traction for our users.

Sample Pageviews over time for multiple groups

Sample Dashboard Gauges for 1 week (updated daily)

The above examples are just a few reports that we look at. GA provides a virtual treasure trove of information that can gives our team a much better understanding of all the dimensions of user behavior.

Is analytics part of your core role?

Not specifically, but it helps us better measure user engagement so I think analytics is well within the scope of the Community Manager's duties.

If it is how much time do you dedicate to it?

The real work is setting up the reports, which can take some time in the beginning. Once you get the reports setup, they can be run every day automatically, so there's minimal required maintenance time once you are up and running and you actually save time if you trying to browse through all the CMRs for groups/.spaces.

Do you get support from teams outside of your team to help crunch the numbers?

No.

Where do you see the most valuable analytics coming from?

Pageviews. But some of the more detailed reports give you the ability to understand the different dimensions of user behavior that can be really valuable (what is the path users take from the overview page to the rest of the site? what documents/videos/discussions are the most popular in any given time setting? )

What do you think you do really well?

By better understanding the different dimensions of user engagement, we can more easily meet the user where they are (our email campaign featuring wiki documents had more clicks-thoroughs than any other campaign)

What would you like to do better?

Surface the data to the Community Leads and empower them to intervene when user engagement metrics in their group or space falls off.